This is a very interesting presentation on moving large-scale data. I spoke with Ian prior to the presentation and he explained that we would also be hearing from Steve Tuecke about this on Friday (Professional Development seminar). I won't give it away!

Shannon Tufts, Director, UNC Center for Public Technology

Innovation is something that we are all used to. We have a distinguished panel.

Panelist Comments

Holden Thorp, Chancellor, UNC

RTP (Research Triangle Park) is competing for #3 in the region for innovation dollars. The three reasons we haven't quite achieved everything we can: 1) do we have an adequate ecosystem for producing companies? Not a lot of folks nearby who have created a company. 2) If faculty members are successful at getting research dollars then they are less likely to want to start a company. Our success in that area holds back the development of new startups. 3) There is a shortage of people that you can talk to, informally. Seminars don't work.

At Chapel Hill we are 1) Teaching entrepreneurship to our students. This can be partnered with other degree programs, it seems. 2) Streamlining the bureaucratic hurdle--bureaucrats are good at initiating a rule to prevent something bad from happening. We have an express license with the university that can get done in two weeks. 3) We try to improve the atmosphere where faculty can meet folks who have started a company. We bring in folks to teach a class or two and faculty can meet them, informally.

John Bardo, Retired Chancellor, Western Carolina University

Discussion of innovation at the state level. People are talking about American innovation sinking. This discussion of innovation is also about the future of our children, the future of our country, aspects of employment and unemployment.

Can we educate our work force? Do we need more college degrees or is it the kind of education that folks receive. Looking at this among states in terms of their abilities to be competitive I have found some indicators that are consistent in explaining business innovation and education innovation.

Business Innovation (most to least predictive):

% of employment in high tech firms

% of computer specialists among workforce

Business R&D among industry

% of engineers in workforce

SBIRs as percent of state GDP--

Venture capital oer million

s&e grad students per thousand people aged 25 to 34.

Education Innovation (most to least predictive):

Academic R&D as percent of state GDP

S&E bachelor's degrees awarded

Percent of 25 to 44 year olds who are high school grads

SBIRs per million dollars of state GDP

States who have more students who qualify for LOANS are more likely to be more competitive. States with more students who qualify for PELL GRANTS are less competitive. LOANS are the best single predictor of a state's competitiveness (negative correlation).

We have to help women and minorities understand the roots to success.

Matthew Szulik, former President & CEO, Red Hat

Some Controversy: Most of the most successful entrepreneurs DON'T have college degrees.

How did Redhat become a leader: When I joined RedHat in 1996, they were a magazine company placing disks in the back of magazines. They continued to reach out to kids in 1997 & 1998 who understood the Internet but did not have college degrees. These were unbelievably young people who were incredibly constrained by the college setting and that caused them to drop out.

We're here because of Open Source computing -- the Internet is the most visible open source project. Open Source is here to stay!

From 1998 to 2001 our board members tried to push me to move to California from North Carolina. Fortunately, we did not.

The roots of open source are in the academic world. Open source is the content that can fuel education and training and innovation. A person can learn via the MIT coursework that is now online and delve into the roots of open source code.